Delusional thinking and cognitive organization in schizophrenia.

A delusion can be conceptualized as a form of cognitive reorganization; according to this interpretation a delusion serves to integrate into a meaningful and acceptable whole data which otherwise would be anxiety provoking. On the assumption that the utilization of delusions is representative of a generalized cognitive technique for dealing with ambiguous inputs it was hypothesized that delusional schizophrenics should manifest a stronger tendency to integrate ambiguous stimuli in a laboratory situation than nondelusional schizophrenics. To test the hypothesis 24 delusional and 25 nondelusional schizophrenics were compared on the McGill Closure Test. The results supported the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overinclusive thinking in process and reactive schizophrenics: Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Thomas S. Eliseo (Journal of Consulting Psychology, 27[5] 1963, 447-449). The quotation from column one, paragraph two on page 448, "the median, 25... higher" should read as follows, "the median, 25, was selected as the separation point for Re (scores of 24 or less) and Pr (scores of 26 or higher)." (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1964-04599-001.) Previous research has indicated that schizophrenics show more overinclusive thinking (i.e., failure to exclude behavior unrelated to a task) than do "normals." 17 reactive schizophrenics, 29 process schizophrenics, and 21 chronic general medical-surgical patients, equivalent in vocabulary knowledge and education, were compared on the Epstein Inclusion Test. Contrary to the prediction that the process schizophrenics would commit more errors, no significant differences were found between the groups. It is possible that overinclusion is a characteristic of depression or chronic illness in general, rather than specific to the schizophrenic disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contradictory results using the mecholyl test to differentiate process and reactive schizophrenia.

Replication of a previous research (see G. F. King, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1958, 56, 160-164), without a replication of the results. The present research did not find a significant difference between groups on the basis of reaction to the drug. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning, Emotions, and Delusional Conviction in Psychosis.

The aim of the study was to elucidate the factors contributing to the severity and persistence of delusional conviction. One hundred participants with current delusions, recruited for a treatment trial of psychological therapy (PRP trial), were assessed at baseline on measures of reasoning, emotions, and dimensions of delusional experience. Reasoning biases (belief inflexibility, jumping to conclusions, and extreme responding) were found to be present in one half of the sample. The hypothesis was confirmed that reasoning biases would be related to delusional conviction. There was evidence that belief inflexibility mediated the relationship between jumping to conclusions and delusional conviction. Emotional states were not associated with the reasoning processes investigated. Anxiety, but not depression, made an independent contribution to delusional conviction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contaminated thinking: A specimen of the primary process.

We conducted an intensive analysis of contaminated responses on the Rorschach. The process of contaminated thinking assumes different forms which are analogous to the numerous varieties of dream condensation. Most of these responses combine regressive and progressive features, in that they combine primary and secondary process thinking. Many appear to have dynamic significance as well. We described the struggle implicit in such responses, between a regressive loss of objects, and an effort to remain in contact with reality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pharmacotherapy for Delusional Disorder and Associated Conditions.

Delusional disorder, according to current psychiatric nosology, is the presence of one or more nonbizarre delusions (i.e., false beliefs that nonetheless may be plausible or derived from ordinary life experiences) that do not occur in the context of schizophrenia and often exist in the presence of generally acceptable levels of psychosocial functioning. Currently recognized subtypes of delusional disorder are erotomanic (a delusion that another is in love with the patient), grandiose, jealous, persecutory, or somatic (Manschreck, 2000). As Manschreck noted, the diagnosis is complicated by disagreements over the distinction between bizarre and nonbizarre delusions, as well as the fact that the features of certain subtypes of delusional disorder may closely resemble those found in other conditions. Very little data, aside from anecdotal or case reports, exist to inform practice regarding the treatment of delusional disorder. Much of the recent literature addresses delusions that exist in the context of dementia or another underlying neurological disorder. It is important to recognize the substantial differences between these conditions and a primary delusional disorder. This brief review examines not only pharmacological management of primary delusional disorder but also delusions in the context of dementia and related disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract thinking and social behavior in schizophrenia.

20 normal and 24 schizophrenic Ss were presented a series of cards, each bearing a stimulus word and 2 response words variously related in meaning to the stimulus. The Ss were asked to select the response word which they felt to be "closer in meaning" to the stimulus word. The results confirmed, at the .01 level, the hypotheses that (a) normals will exceed schizophrenics in the ability to select, as most similar in meaning to a given word, that word which is related to it in an essential abstract way; and (b) within a schizophrenic group, the above ability will be positively correlated with adequacy of everyday social interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking deficit in schizophrenia and changes with amytal.

"To study schizophrenic thinking, three tests… were given to four groups of patients: chronic schizophrenic, early schizophrenic, depressive, and neurotic. These tests were given without and with intravenous sodium amytal and benzedrine sulfate… . Two general effects of the drugs are suggested: (a) a facilitating effect when increased verbal responsiveness is beneficial to the score, and (b) an impairing effect when a highly precise response is required." Reduced self-reference under drugs also tends to improve the schizophrenic's scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some verbal aspects of primary process thought in schizophrenia.

"On the basis of the psychoanalytic concept of primary process, it was predicted that schizophrenics would show a greater tendency than normals to treat both antonyms and homonyms as synonyms. The instrument used was a multiple-choice paper-and-pencil test. Each item required the subject to select a synonym from among three alternatives, a synonym, either an antonym or a homonym, and a third word which was neither… . The schizophrenics exceeded the normal subjects on this corrected score for both the antonym task and the homonym task. A possible non-Freudian interpretation of the data in terms of learning theory generalization is discussed." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3JQ55B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The process-reactive classification of schizophrenia.

Research on the process-reactive classification of schizophrenia indicates there are 2 groups of schizophrenic patients differing in prognostic and life-history variables. It is also possible to demonstrate differences between the 2 groups in physiological measures and psychological dimensions. The evidence does not support a process-organic vs. a reactive-psychogenic formulation of schizophrenic etiology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering the past and imagining the future in schizophrenia.

It has been suggested that patients with schizophrenia experience a distorted sense of continuity of self across time. However, temporal aspects of self-processing have received little empirical attention in schizophrenia. In this study, the authors investigated schizophrenic patients' ability to generate specific mental images of their personal past and future. Results showed that patients recalled fewer specific past events than did healthy controls and were even more impaired in generating specific future events. These deficits were associated with positive symptoms but were not associated with negative symptoms or with performances on verbal fluency tasks. It is suggested that schizophrenic patients' failures to project themselves into specific past and future episodes might be related to difficulties in retrieving contextual details from memory, as well as disturbance of the sense of subjective time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reaction time, distractibility, and overinclusive thinking in psychotics.

Fifteen paranoid schizophrenics, 15 nonparanoid schizophrenics, and 15 nonschizophrenic psychiatric inpatients were given 3 of Babcock's tests of psychomotor retardation, and a test of overinclusive thinking based on Benjamin's proverbs. In addition, they took part in a simple and multiple-choice auditory reactiontime experiment in which the presence and number of distracting stimuli were varied. As predicted, the reaction times of the overinclusive patients were initially significantly slower. Overinclusive patients were also significantly more affected by the distraction, presumably because they are less able to filter out these irrelevant stimuli. A similar performance characterized those diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, as contrasted to those with other diagnoses, probably because of the significant relationship between paranoia and overinclusive thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concerning the concreteness in schizophrenia.

In a previously published paper (see 33: 8329), Cavanaugh "concluded that schizophrenic patients are suffering from decreased motivation. He states that his results speak against my concept of schizopenia, assuming that I consider the concreteness of the schizophrenic to be a result of an organic defect of the brain, similar to the impairment of abstraction in organic patients. He has apparently overlooked the fact that the author has denied such an interpretation… . I hope that this discussion may eliminate forever the wrong assumption that I consider the abnormal concreteness in schizophrenics as an effect of an organic deficit… ." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential autonomic responsiveness in the process-reactive classification of schizophrenia.

"This investigation consisted of two studies which were concerned with the relationship between the process-reactive classification of schizophrenia and autonomic nervous system activity… . [Both]… studies revealed that the patients classified as 'reactive' exhibited a significantly greater fall in blood pressure after the administration of mecholyl than the process patients… . It was concluded that the process-reactive classification seems to provide a fruitful frame of reference for research in schizophrenia." (31 ref.) From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1JS60K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new theory of schizophrenia.

Atheory of schizophrenia is presented by a patient on a closed ward of a VA hospital with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. "My view is that the schizophrenic has adopted semi-instinctive, insincere strategems in order to escape punishment, one of them being withdrawal from intimacy—which isolation causes a libidinal starvation resulting in an involuntary, neurotic-type outbreak of symptoms based on unconscious, pregenital (perverted libidinal) drives… . He is a terrified, conscience-stricken crook, who has repressed his interest in people, unavowedly insincere and uncooperative, struggling against unconscious sexual perversion." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Production of associative sequences in schizophrenia and chronic brain syndrome.

"… timing differences in the associative process of schizophrenics and epileptics" was studied. Recall and a "condition of restricted association were employed… . controls were found to differ from the patient groups with respect to gross output of words… . As increased restrictions were imposed on the associative process, disturbances in the thinking of the pathological groups became more apparent… . results suggest that inappropriate responses (intrusions), which appear in the productions of psychotic individuals, are but symptomatic of a more basic disturbance in thought processes… . [Results] discussed within the framework of Hebbian theory and in relation to other theoretical formulations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic memory and impairment of an early encoding process in schizophrenia.

Investigations of memory impairment in schizophrenia have frequently revealed a strategic processing deficit at encoding. The authors studied an early encoding process, refreshing (in this case, thinking of a stimulus that has just-previously been presented), and its impact on recognition memory in schizophrenia. Following simultaneous presentation of three words or a single word in the top, middle, or bottom position of the screen, 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 control participants saw and read a new word (read condition), or a word presented on the previous screen (repeat condition), or saw a dot indicating that they should think of and say the last word to have appeared in that position (refresh condition). Later, on a surprise test, participants were asked to recognize words seen previously and give a Remember, Know, or Guess response according to whether they recognized each on the basis of conscious recollection, familiarity, or guessing. The cognitive operation of refreshing was impaired in schizophrenia: patients were slower on 1-word trials and less accurate on 3-word trials to refresh a word, and their Remember responses did not benefit from refreshing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time estimation in process-reactive schizophrenia.

Process and reactive schizophrenics, and reactive schizophrenics and normals were compared as to their responses on a perceptual time-estimation task. Null hypotheses being tested were that groups would not differ in variability or accuracy of response. Schizophrenic (45) and normal (15) subjects were selected from the male patient population and hospital employees, respectively, of a Veteran's Administration hospital. Schizophrenics selected for the study were classified by means of the Abbreviated Becker Elgin Scale. Subjects were individually administered a time-estimation task consisting of seven stimulus cards which were tachistoscopically presented, with exposure speeds at 10, 20, and 30 seconds for each card. Judgments of exposure times were converted into scores based upon ratios of estimated time to actual time. Scores (three) for each card were totaled. Groups were then compared on each of the stimulus cards by means of two-tailed t tests. In accuracy of estimation, process schizophrenics demonstrated significantly less accuracy than did reactives on four of the seven cards; no differences were shown between reactives and normals in accuracy of estimation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and performance in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenic patients and normals learned a series of motor responses to successively presented visual stimuli; the schizophrenics and normals were each divided into 2 groups, Shock and Rapport, matched on an initial test, Pattern I. The shock groups were each tested on two subsequent tasks, Patterns II and III. "The results showed a differential facilitative effect of the shock stimulation for the schizophrenic patients on Pattern III but not on Pattern II. The schizophrenic rapport group declined in efficiency from Pattern II to III, a result not seen in the shock group of patients or in either normal group. These findings were interpreted in terms of an inferred process of motivational dissipation during performance in schizophrenia." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Censure sensitivity in schizophrenia.

Hypotheses derived from the Rodnick-Garmezy theory of schizophrenic censure sensitivity were tested in a 3 Groups (Normals and Poor and Good Premorbid Schizophrenics) × 2 Sex (Man and Woman Parental Surrogate) factorial design. Predictions were tested both at predispositional (recollections of parental child-rearing attitudes and practices) and behavioral levels (susceptibility to social influence). The results at both levels failed to support the predictions of general schizophrenic hypersensitivity and differential schizophrenic sensitivity to sex according to the adequacy of premorbid adjustment. The general clinical theory of hyposensitivity was considered as an alternative but was also found to be inadequate. Reported parental dominance was unrelated to susceptibility to influence. Acquiescence response tendency was found to be highly related to reports of parental attitudes and to extent of social influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)